Forms & Printouts

There are only a handful of NFA forms, and the one you need is decided by two questions: who is making or moving the item, and who is receiving it. This page is the short answer. For the long one — every form, every box, who signs what — see Every ATF NFA form, explained.

Which form

• Form 1 — you are making an NFA firearm. An individual building an SBR, or a trust doing the same. Approval must come before the item exists.
• Form 2 — a Class 2 manufacturer notifying ATF of NFA firearms produced. A notice after the fact, not an application.
• Form 3 — a transfer between licensees with SOT status. Distributor to dealer, dealer to dealer. No tax, and it is the form standing between your customer and their item when you order one in.
• Form 4 — a transfer to a non-licensee. Your customer. This is the one with the fingerprints, the photos and the wait.
• Form 5 — a tax-exempt transfer, typically to a government agency, or the transfer of an unserviceable firearm.
• Form 5320.20 — permission to move certain NFA firearms across state lines. Not a transfer; a travel notice.
• Form 5630.7 — your annual Special Occupational Tax. Not a firearm form at all, but the one that lets you touch the others.

The pair that matters day to day

For a dealer, almost all NFA work is Form 3 in and Form 4 out. The item arrives from a distributor on an approved Form 3; it leaves to the customer on an approved Form 4. Two approvals, two very different timescales, and one customer asking about both. We walk that workflow through in Form 3 versus Form 4.

What the 2026 tax change did and did not alter

The making and transfer tax on suppressors, short-barrelled rifles, short-barrelled shotguns and AOWs went to $0 on 1 January 2026. Machine guns and destructive devices still carry the $200 tax. Nothing else changed. The forms are still filed, approval is still required before transfer, fingerprints and photographs are still collected, and the item still stays with you until approval lands. See what changed in 2026.

Where the forms meet your records

An NFA item lives in two places at once: your A&D bound book, like any other firearm, and the NFA registry via its form. The failure mode is treating those as one job and doing only the easier half. NFA-BRO ties the form status to the bound book entry so a pending Form 4 is visible next to the item it belongs to.

Not legal advice. Confirm current form versions and requirements with the ATF before filing.